Lesley Weidenbener: Big-time events bring welcome opportunities
Community leaders are determined to give the people who live in the region an opportunity to participate.
Volunteers
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IBJ Podcast: Indiana’s Jiffy Lube guru on art, entrepreneurism, police relations and March Madness laundry
Steve Sanner is owner and president of Jiffy Lube of Indiana, which counts 51 locations and about 510 employees altogether.
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Million Meal Movement prepares for 24-hour All-Star event
The Indianapolis-based Million Meal Movement, with more than 6,000 volunteers, aims to pack more than 1 million meal pouches during the NBA Cares All-Star Day of Service from 4 p.m. Feb. 15 to 4 p.m. Feb. 16 at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Community outreach is key to All-Star effort for Stowers
Stowers did not make the boys basketball team at North Central High School, but he said the game taught him lessons about character development and team building that he uses today. He is co-chair of the community engagement committee for the NBA All-Star 2024 Host Committee.
Indianapolis prepares for NBA All-Star 2024 hosting gig
Hosting an NBA All-Star Weekend is a complicated and costly endeavor, but Indianapolis officials say the city and its civic partners can pull it off more easily than can many locales because of a history of experience with large-scale events.
Volunteers key to city’s March Madness efforts
Volunteers are coordinating bus transportation for teams, running to the store for toothpaste for players, sanitizing practice courts, doing laundry for the teams, beautifying the city with new trees, picking up trash, setting up seating pods in the venues and assisting out-of-town media and other guests with just about anything they may need.
Volunteers wash more than 12 tons of laundry for NCAA Tournament teams
Perhaps the least glamorous—yet important—volunteer task for March Madness has been collecting, washing and drying the dirty uniforms for the players and personnel for 68 teams in the tournament.
Local tech firm Selfless.ly uses its platform to make sure Hoosiers get COVID vaccine
Indianapolis-based Selfless.ly is using its software to pull together an army of volunteers to help keep COVID-19 vaccination sites humming at optimal speed.
COVID-19 pandemic prompts Lilly, other groups to overhaul service projects
It’s a big pivot for organizations that traditionally create high-visibility fall projects to call attention to volunteerism and community service. In the process, they help dozens of neighborhood groups and scores of not-for-profits, from the United Way of Central Indiana to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.
Tech firm Selfless.ly mobilizes army of volunteers to aid ailing not-for-profits
This week, Indianapolis tech firm Selfless.ly partnered with Serve Indiana—the state commission on volunteerism and service—to launch an initiative to identify a cadre of ready volunteers and match them with volunteer opportunities that can be accomplished while social distancing.
IBJ Podcast: How offering PTO for volunteering can boost retention, improve recruitment
Josh Driver, founder of Selfless.ly, which sells cloud-based software for managing corporate social responsibility programs, says volunteer PTO is an increasingly important part of benefits packages. In fact, nearly one quarter of companies now pay employees to spend their time and energy with a not-for-profit.
Josh Driver: 5 keys to an effective volunteer time-off program
Employees are not always fulfilled by their work. That can lead to expensive turnover, poor performance or disengagement. Empowering your staff to find purpose during work time creates loyalty to your company and helps fill the gaps their employment may not be creating at the moment.
Q&A with Tiffany Benjamin: Lilly’s efforts more than simply a day of service
“Our central focus as a company is always to make lives better. … It’s a value that is core to every single employee who works here. So if we can have programs that reinforce that we are a company that is focused on making lives better, then we are doing something that connects to our mission and reminds our employees what really matters to us as a company.”
Nate Feltman: Business community embraces volunteerism
Business leaders recognize today that they and their companies have the ability to positively impact their community through volunteerism efforts. Many see it as a responsibility.
Companies are giving employees more say in how, when they volunteer
Experts in corporate social responsibility, or CSR, say such programs are at least in part driven by millennials in the workforce and are almost necessary today to attract and maintain top talent.
Local Goodwill Foundation gets $2.4M gift from longtime volunteer
The donation will be used to establish the Miller Family Fund for Success, which will help support Goodwill’s education, health and employment programs.
Indiana has good corporate citizens, but improvements still can be made, panelists say
Business and political leaders at the annual Engage Indiana event stressed the importance of public and private collaborations in helping improve communities and retain workers.
IBJ Podcast: At 57, she’s quitting her gig as a top executive to volunteer around the world
Host Mason King talks with Athenaeum Foundation President Cassie Stockamp about why she’s choosing to leave the group she has led through a reinvigoration—and why she’s doing it now.
Local firm rolls out software designed to help charities win donations
Super Service Challenge, a national not-for-profit aimed at helping charities raise money and in-kind contributions, is launching a new e-platform designed by Indianapolis-based Sells Group meant to connect companies, volunteers and not-for-profits in a whole new way.
United Way expands poverty simulations to educate, engage community
IBJ reporter Lindsey Erdody participated in a recent poverty simulation conducted by the United Way of Central Indiana and hosted by Kronos Inc. and TechPoint.
Lilly Endowment CEO: Businesses key in virtuous circle of community prosperity
For Indianapolis to thrive, its businesses need to share their resources for civic-minded efforts, N. Clay Robbins told attendees Friday at the Engage Indiana event for corporate philanthropy.